Main » Google Plus Codes for Maps announced as digital location-based addressing system

Google Plus Codes for Maps announced as digital location-based addressing system

14 March 2018

These Plus codes can come in handy for a wide variety of reasons for instance- while communicating the venue of a temporary event, guiding emergency services to afflicted locations, or providing an identifiable location for complicated addresses.In an another step aimed at facilitating accurate and easy searching on Maps, Google has introduced an "Add an Address" feature. Yes, it is no more a challenge for anybody to reach at a given residential address. Google Maps is now launching voice navigation in six additional Indian languages: Bengali, Gujarati, Kannada, Telugu, Tamil, and Malayalam. Several regions in the world bear no markers, such as street names or house numbers.

Similar to adding businesses, users can submit new or missing addresses through this feature, and Google will make sure that the address is searchable in due course after verification.

"At Google Maps, our objective has always been about organising all location-related information, and making it more accessible and relevant for Indian users". They are unique in format, and vary across regions, localities, and use cases.

This system works by dividing the geographical surface of Earth into tiny tiled areas that each have a unique code - called Plus Code. And, with Plus Codes in Google Maps, users will now be able to share addresses with people that aren't listed properly, or, haven't been listed at all.

Another significant feature that Google has added in the Maps is voice navigation in six local Indian languages.

Plus Code functionality is being integrated into the Google Maps app as well, so you can use it to zero in on a location. "Millions of people and places in India are hard to locate - especially those in remote areas".

While we pay homage to Google for bringing us the greatest search engine ever made and for developing Android OS into what it is today, the company has done so much more. The Plus codes feature - a renaming of the Open Location code which has been live since 2014 - is open-source and open to third-party apps and services to use. The navigation in Hindi was launched three years back. This feature enables you to contribute to the Maps experience from the Maps.

"Using plus codes to locate friends at the beach is one example, but these codes become extremely helpful in places with high population density but poor data accuracy or coverage, or those that lack a specific addressing system altogether", writes Rasto Sramek, Software Engineer, Google Maps.

You can search the code, in maps and even in Google search, and it will pinpoint that exact location from where you took that code. According to the company, it is an innovative approach to provide the best estimate of the location of an address.